While Charlie’s evolving film character was a parody of Charlie Sr.’s stage character it’s impossible to know if he actually made that connection himself. “I think you’re liable to kill your enthusiasm if you delve to deeply into the psychology of the characters you are creating,” he warned his fellow actors. While Chaplin carefully avoided engaging publicly in introspective conjecture about the deepest personal roots of his creative imagination, he once remarked casually (in an entirely different context): “I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t trying to follow in my father’s footsteps.” (See Chaplin A Life, Chapter XIV for an in-depth analysis of the interconnections between Chaplin’s screen character and his namesake father’s stage character).